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Man, I did more homework for today’s post than any other comic to date. I (re)learned a lot about human hearing. Let me know if you have any questions about the material in today’s comic – it’s a fascinating subject to me.
Oh, if you are a bit queasy about math then you should avert your eyes from the top portion of today’s comic.

Krystal

I wish contrabassoon was included on this chart… take THAT, tuba!

http://www.facebook.com/people/Dale-King/100000282917400 Dale King

I would buy a poster of this sir!

http://www.facebook.com/ardysd Ardys DeLu

Do you know what key the dial tone is in?

Anonymous

After all the research for this comic, yes, I did come across some material on dial tones. In North America, the dial tone is made up of two interfering tones – one at 350Hz and one at 440Hz (F4 and A4 respectively). In most of Europe, the dial tone is one single pitch at 425Hz (which is between G#4 and A4).

I hope you make a poster of your range chart. It would look real good in school music rooms!

Nancy K

I play in a six octave handbell choir, C2-C8, plus a C9 on top. It’s more of an overtone than an actual note! Very cool comic, I’ll have to study this more in depth later.

http://www.facebook.com/mbajoras Mathew Bajoras

Does the frequency range take into account playing notes that are off of the fingerboard? Because there are some songs where I have to do that on my cello. The composers always forget to include a few measures of rests so that I can wipe the sticky rosin dust off my fingers lol.

Anonymous

No, the ranges listed are more of a general range for the instrument. Although you would be hard pressed to find a piano that goes above a C8, there are definitely players that can play above these general ranges – this is especially true for jazz trumpet players, and playing above the fingerboard on stringed instruments.